The Effect of Novel Designs on the Performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell

Numerical simulation is extensively used in the many industries to investigate transport phenomena inside channels with variant dimensions and porous environments to save time and cost. In the present study, novel designs for cylindrical polymer fuel cell in the numerical and three-dimensional form are presented. In the simulation of these models, Finite Volume Method is used. Finite Volume Method is mainly utilized to discretization and SIMPLE Algorithm is used to velocity pressure coupling. Thereafter, novel designs are used to increase the performance of polymer electrolyte fuel cell. In this study at first, the effect of semi-circular prominent GDLs is studied. By locating these prominences on GDLs, it is observed that the performance of fuel cell is enhanced in same condition. However, the optimum size of the prominences is also investigated in the present work. If the radius size of these prominences reaches to 0.55 mm the velocity magnitude of flow exceeds the desired magnitude. This fact affects the penetration of reactant negatively. Then, the effect of gradual changes in cross-section, the geometrical configuration of cell parts on species diffusion, the output current density are put under careful study. The results displayed the optimal performance is belong to the cylindrical fuel cell with elliptical cross-section. Wider transport region and lower drop quantity in identical volume for reactive gases to pass to the reactive domain are the reasons for optimal function.